Photographs of Teresa Tamura

The United States government imprisoned more than 9,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans at the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Jerome County, Idaho, during World War II. Minidoka was one of 10 sites created under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 authorizing the military to incarcerate Japanese and Japanese Americans from the West Coast as well as German and Italian nationals. Inspired to better understand the story of Minidoka, Tamura began in 2001 to document the site and its survivors through black and white images. Her book, Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp, is dedicated to those “who showed us shiren, Japanese for trial, test, challenge, hardship” in recognition of the suffering and injustice that they experienced. Tamura gifted a collection of photographs published in her book to Boise State University in 2018. These photographs make up a significant part of the Permanent Art Collection and are available to students and faculty for research.

Exhibition Location

Student Union Fine Arts Gallery, Boise State University

The Fine Arts Gallery is located at 1700 University Drive on the second floor of the Student Union Building. Admission is free to all students, staff, and community members. Parking is available for an hourly fee in metered spaces and in the Lincoln and Brady Garages.

More information can be found here.

Please note, this event is not in partnership with Friends of Minidoka. We acknowledge that our Friends may be interested in all opportunities to learn more about Minidoka and are using our platform to share these opportunities.